The Effort to Rebrand Reefer

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If your vision of a pot smoker is a glassy-eyed slacker who likes the Cartoon Network and loves Funyuns, Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, would like a word with you. Pierre, who has never even had a goatee, is leading an effort to rebrand weed as it becomes more mainstream. Among the stereotypes that Pierre would like to dispel: Pot smokers wear Nehru jackets. They have long hair. They smell likepatchouli.

Pierre has allies in his fight. Steve DeAngelo, the president of a lobbying firm called CannBe, doesn’t even like the “m” word (marijuana), which he considers negative. Instead, DeAngelo thinks people should use the scientific term “cannabis.” Of course, if you don’t like either of those, there are a few other things you could callit.